Renovation, construction projects fill summer

Renovation and construction projects are underway at Wake Forest University this summer that will update classroom and residence buildings and create new athletic facilities.

In addition, Wake Forest will place gatehouses at two of its three street entrances, build a small outdoor stage and add parking spaces. Meanwhile, at the university’s Reynolda Gardens, extensive renovations began this spring.

Some of the work is linked to Wake Forest’s goal of providing students and faculty with direct access to the university’s expanding computer network from virtually anywhere on campus. The work coincides with the implementation of Wake Forest’s Plan for the Class of 2000 in the fall. The plan calls, in part, for providing all incoming freshmen with IBM ThinkPads.

The computer-related renovations, begun in stages a few years ago, involve installing the newest in high-speed computer wiring, which allows students to connect to the network from their classroom desks or residence halls. The renovations also are bringing the latest in audio and visual technology to many classrooms, including equipment which can project images onto a wall screen from a computer, videocassette recorder or textbook.

Three residence halls–Johnson, Bostwick and Kitchin–are being renovated extensively this summer. Scheduled for completion in August, the work includes installing air conditioning systems and computer wiring, as well as repainting and reflooring. In the 1990s, Wake Forest has been using summer breaks to bring air conditioning to older residence halls built without it.

The university also has been expanding its ability to supply air conditioning to more residential buildings. One chiller plant was recently expanded, another will be built in the fall. The plants generate cold water for the air conditioning system.

The largest construction project on campus is a new soccer stadium along Polo Road. The W. Dennie Spry Soccer Stadium, which will seat 3,000 people, features a playing field and two practice fields. It is expected to be finished in August, in time for the opening of a new season for men’s and women’s soccer.

Two other athletic facilities will be built at Wake Forest’s Groves Stadium on Deacon Boulevard, about a mile from campus. The football stadium’s Bridger Field House is being torn down now to make way for a new, three-story field house that will open next summer. It will feature not only locker and training rooms, but also banquet and meeting rooms, office space and the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame.

Construction will begin soon on a new indoor tennis center adjacent to the field house. When it is completed in January 1996, it will replace the indoor tennis center on the Wake Forest campus. The 64,000-square-foot facility will feature eight tennis courts, locker rooms and a training room.

Other campus construction projects include the university’s new gatehouses and a small stage. The gatehouses, which will be finished in August, will be built at the Reynolda Road and University Parkway entrances to campus. The gatehouses will be staffed by University Police officers each night from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

During the same hours, a gate will close off the campus’s Polo Road entrance. The university recently dropped plans to build a gatehouse at the entrance.

The gatehouses and gate are being built as part of a comprehensive plan to bolster security that also includes hiring more police officers and installing additional lighting.

A brick and concrete stage is under construction at the northern end of Wake Forest’s Magnolia Courtyard for a variety of university events. The university’s Student Union and several other student organizations have routinely set up temporary stages on the site.

Beginning in late summer, the university will increase the number of campus parking spaces. A new parking lot will be built near the university’s Palmer and Piccolo residence halls; another will be built on the campus’s northern edge, near the new soccer stadium. Small numbers of spaces will be added to some existing lots, also.

Using landscape architect Thomas Sears’ original 1913 plans for Reynolda Gardens, the university is replacing old plants and trees, restoring greenhouses and other structures, and repairing walks and walls. Much of the Reynolda Gardens project is expected to be completed within two years.

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